Creatively Cool 2015: Andrea Pippins

We all are inspired in different ways. Various paths have led us to the careers we have today.

And for Andrea Pippins, 36, her interest in design happen to come from a movie.

“I was intrigued by Halle Berry’s character in Boomerangwhere she was an art director. In the film, she was also an artist and an art teacher,” Pippins said.

“When I saw “Angela” I was AMAZED, even though she wasn’t a real person. Before that character, I had never seen a person working in a career where they could be creative -let alone a woman of color!”

It was also around that same time, Pippins said, that her love for design was also sparked by a television segment that happened to come on during the Saturday morning cartoons.

“[It was] about a woman who was an art director at a magazine. Again, I was amazed because she was talking about drawing, and designing, and sharing how all that informed her work as an art director,” she said.

And now, as an illustrator, designer, professor, and more recently, an author, it’s hard to get in touch with Andrea Pippins.

She has an amazing resume of clientele, having designed and illustrated for a number of companies, including Free People, Hallmark Cards, and TV Land -just to name a few. Her work has also caught attention of a number of publications, from Clutch Magazine to Refinery29. It’s no wonder the Baltimore based artist is in such demand.

“Ha, I feel I never not have something to do. On that very rare occasion, I like to go sit by the water at the Harbor and just think,” she said.

A lot of the artist’s work, easily recognized by her signature style of bold patterns and designs, are not only beautiful, but also evoke a sense of empowerment and self-love, especially for women of color.

“Because my work focuses on women of color I always try to show us in away we are not often presented,” she said. “For example, just being pretty and/or doing things like being artists, designers, engineers, and business owners.”